New Congress Must Review Internal Rules to Promote Good Governance

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) encourages the newly-elected 118th Congress to swiftly review and amend internal House and Senate rules to make Congress more transparent, effective, and accessible to taxpayers and consumers. These reforms include the way Congress uses taxpayer funds, ethical procedures, and witness testimony.

TPA President, David Williams, offered the following statement:

“For too long, internal Congressional procedures have hampered the legislature’s ability to resist politicization and have created a non-transparent environment in the halls of Congress. We encourage both freshman and veteran legislators to promote good governing principles.

“First, Congress must recognize that earmarks are a flawed practice with a long history of abuse. At a time when the national debt is more than $30 trillion, Congress should practice frugality and ensure that local projects are funded by tax revenue generated within that community or state. In a move devoid of common sense, Congress reinstated the practice of earmarking this past year. It is time to once again ban these corruptive special interest projects.

“Secondly, concrete action to ban congressional stock trading must be a priority. Over the previous two congresses, very little has been done to curtail the conflict of interest that arises when members are permitted to supplement their taxpayer-funded paycheck with gains from the stock market. Even if they are not on the committee of jurisdiction for a piece of legislation, taxpayers should have confidence that their elected officials are making decisions based on policy and not their own wallets.

“Thirdly, given the abundance of sensitive ethical issues posed to members of Congress, responsibility for internal oversight should be reorganized away from the respective House and Senate ethics committees, which have proven incapable of dutifully investigating and judging members’ conduct. Instead, the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) should be made statutory, given greater authority, and integrated to include the Senate in addition to the House.

“Finally, it is imperative that members’ receive and value the testimony of industry experts in true committee hearings. Congress should not be rushing bills straight to markup without properly vetting the proposals. This includes input from the covered industry about how the legislation would affect that particular industry. This once-standard practice has been diluted over the past decade to allow for committee members to use hearings as soundbite soapboxes rather than the true deliberation processes they should be. Furthermore, the 118th Congress should emphasize transparency in lawmaking and refrain from covertly amending bills after they have been passed by the jurisdictional committee. If changes are to be made, the bill should begin the process again and receive a separate committee markup and expert testimony regarding new or removed provisions.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.